This invention relates generally to facilitating communications between web servers and particularly to enabling web servers to make distributed service queries among themselves.
A number of different web servers may all be coupled by a given network such as the Internet. In many cases, one web server knows nothing about what the other web servers are doing. There is generally no easy way to coordinate the services provided by relatively independent web servers.
In a number of cases, it may be desirable to implement communications between web servers. However, if an entirely new protocol were necessary to implement the communications, the need to back fit such a communication protocol to existing web servers may make such a protocol unfeasible.
A first web server may receive a request for services from a given user. However, that user may only be affiliated with a second web server that is coupled to the same network as the first server. To provide distributed services, it will be necessary for the first web server to obtain information about the user from the second web server. If this information could be obtained, distributed services could be provided by a plurality of web servers. Users could then migrate from web server to web server, effectively carrying with them their server credentials. As a result, the first web server, obtaining sufficient information about the user from the second web server, may be willing to grant access to the services offered by first web server.
However, currently there is no way to exchange information between web servers in an efficient fashion. Thus, there is a need for a way to efficiently and inexpensively enable communications between web servers and particularly to enable communications for implementing distributed services by web servers.